36 MAMMALIA. [Cuap. I. 
to observe whether anything more powerful than him- 
self may be at hand, from which he might encounter 
the risk of being despoiled of his capture. If the 
coast be clear, he returns to the concealed carcase, and 
carries it away, followed by his companions. But if 
a man be in sight, or any other animal to be avoided, 
my informant has seen the jackal seize a coco-nut husk 
in his mouth, or any similar substance, and fly at full 
speed, as if eager to carry off his pretended prize, 
returning for the real booty at some more convenient 
season. 
They are subject to hydrophobia, and instances are 
frequent in Ceylon of cattle being bitten by them and 
dying in consequence. 
An excrescence is sometimes found on the head of 
the jackal, consisting of a small horny cone about half 
an inch in length, and concealed by a tuft of hair. 
This the natives call narric-comboo ; and they aver that 
this “Jackal’s Horn” only grows on the head of the 
JACEAL'S SKULL AND HORN. 
leader of the pack.! Both the Singhalese and the 
Tamils regard it as a talisman, and believe that its for- 
* In the Museum of the College pital; and I have placed along 
of Surgeons, London (No. 4362 4), with it a specimen of the horny 
there is a cranium of a jackal sheath, which was presented to 
which exhibits this strange os- me by Mr. Lavalliere, the late dis- 
seous process on the super-occi- trict Judge of Kandy. 
